BOOK BOX! HOW IT WORKS @ UDS!

Source: UDS-Telecentre         Location: Kamuli, Uganda
Created By: namukoye on 8-Jul-2008 11:57 AM

Background

The book box project is an outreach-innovation that UDS-Telecentre borrowed from Nakaseke Telecentre in 2005. Considering the fact that UDS-TC is rural based with few people able to travel long distances to use information materials at the centre, UDS thought it wise to "take the Telecentre to the community"! Target beneficiaries are community schools. Book box is a rotational project, where relevant books are packaged in wooden boxes, taken to a school where they serve for one or two academic years after, another needy school gets the chance. Focus is on science subjects including compulsory subjects like English and Mathematics.

Why book boxes for needy schools?

At the inception stage, we consulted the District Education Office, where we together made a list of needy community-founded schools. A baseline survey revealed that less attention is put on reading materials, schools have no libraries/books yet the same schools compete with the well facilitated schools in the country, there is only one (UDS) library in the whole district and very few people can afford to travel long distances to utilize UDS-Telecentre library, out of hundreds of schools, only two schools have libraries (Namasagali College and Busoga High school), most boarding schools in Kamuli have no electricity,

……Ooops! How do they make it?

You must be asking your self!

Parents are poor. "Our children pay 35,000 shillings (£11) as tuition fees, it is hard for many parents to buy books like Biology (A Function Approach by MBV Roberts) which costs 90,000 (£27)" a teacher of Bulopa S.S.S narrates.

How it worked!

In a hands-on capacity building session, both government and community founded school representatives were trained in basic management and running of library (Accessioning, use of book cards to monitor book-activity-ratio, classifying by subject, shelving, dusting of books) in this meeting, an annual subscription fee of 50,000 was agreed upon for boxes that contain over 90 books. In the same meeting, teachers were given the task of identifying relevant titles and author for their respective schools, all lists were compiled and priority made basing on needs. An MOU was signed.

Books were then purchased and given to 6 pilot schools in a function presided over by the district education officer. This has truly worked well. For example, for Bulopa S.S.S the three best students attributed their good performance to the availability of UDS book and support of teachers. Teachers in all schools are truly appreciative of the book box most of them say the project has reduced the hassle of lesson preparation and research, said Telison Luganda , a teacher at Balawoli High School.

Refresher courses coupled with periodic monitoring have done the trick. Schools have set up library sections, which was not the case before, some schools like Kamuli College School have managed to purchase more books in addition to those provided for by the book box. Parents are appreciative of the innovation and pledged to contribute 2000 each to help the schools have own books.

By

Namukoye Geoffrey
UDS-Telecentre Kamuli

Web Site: http://ugandadev.com

Contact Name: Uganda Development Services

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